Five persons were killed in bloody clashes that broke out on Friday in Ondo, the headquarters of Ondo West local government area of Ondo State, SaharaReporters has learned. The deceased, most of them members or supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC), were gunned down by suspected thugs at different locations on Odojumu Street in Ondo town.
Five persons were killed in bloody clashes that broke out on Friday in Ondo, the headquarters of Ondo West local government area of Ondo State, SaharaReporters has learned.
The deceased, most of them members or supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC), were gunned down by suspected thugs at different locations on Odojumu Street in Ondo town.
A source, who confirmed the incident to SaharaReporters on Saturday afternoon, disclosed that the assailants carried guns, machetes, and other dangerous weapons. According to the source, the clashes arose from a leadership struggle between rival groups of the All Progressives Congress in Ondo town.
“The incident happened on Friday afternoon when all of us had already converged at the front of the party (APC) secretariat in Ondo town,” said the source. He added, “We were happy to celebrate the inauguration of Rotimi Akeredolu as the new governor and some of us were planning to travel down to Akure for the dinner event. Suddenly, a group of boys emerged from nowhere with guns and cutlasses and started shooting to scare us away from our location.
“We ran for safety, but before we knew what was happening, these same boys left and trailed some of our active members to their various destinations and killed them one after [another].”
The source disclosed that the thugs also destroyed a vehicle branded with the color of the All Progressives Congress. He accused the police attached to the party secretariat of looking away during the mayhem.
“I’m sure these boys were sponsored and were even aided by the police because our party secretariat was not too far from the Yaba Divisional Police Station in Ondo town.
“An elderly man who was a diehard supporter of the APC was gunned down by the armed thugs while other young boys were either cut in the head or stabbed to death.
“It was a scene of horror. Everybody was forced to remove their branded APC clothes as the thugs made calls to identify their targets,” the source told our correspondent.
One of the sources revealed that the assailants were paid for the jobs and issued weapons that were stocked inside a building.
Femi Joseph, the police spokesman in Ondo State, confirmed the killings in a telephone interview with our correspondent in Akure, the state capital.
Mr. Joseph said police officers from the Yaba Police Divisional Station counted four dead victims at the scene of the attacks. According to him a preliminary investigation showed that the deceased were members of the popular cult group in Ondo town known as “Aiye.”
“We made some arrests yesterday night and this morning, but we are still screening [the detainees] to verify who is who among them,” said the police spokesman. He added, “Our investigations showed that they [the assailants] were fighting for supremacy between themselves thereby killing innocent people in the town.
He continued, “I don't know if they were sponsored, although some of the deceased wore clothes belonging to a particular political party in the state but we are going to do our own job without being biased about it. And we will not spare anyone caught by the police to have been behind these dastardly killings after our investigations.”
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